Parody is often an odd form of entertainment, especially in video games. It’s very difficult to do a parody correctly, and I’ve yet to see a game that has. Bedlam is a parody game that actually ended up being funny while also entertaining me from a gameplay point of view… Sort of.
Bedlam is a first person shooter created by Christopher Brookmyre, based on his book of the same name. The game follows foul-mouthed, Scottish nerd Heather Quinn as she becomes trapped in a world of first person shooters and corruption (corruption could have a double meaning here). Along the way, she meets up with other players and teams up with them in an effort to stop an evil force that threatens the very existence of the game world. The game is a bare bones, basic FPS with the only twist being that you travel between different “styles” of shooters. These range from 90s shooters akin to Quake, World War 2 shooters, Halo, and more.
The game starts you off in a 90s-esque shooter called Starfire, complete with rugged marines and cybernetic aliens. The game quickly establishes its witty way of telling a story, with Heather being one of the only people to realize that she’s in a video game. Her observations always made me chuckle, as she made various references to video games and pop culture alike. The story in Bedlam is actually quite interesting; It had me wanting to get to the end to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, due to the lack of cutscenes all plot is divulged during gameplay, and considering the game can often be challenging and loud, it’s not always easy to pay attention to the dialogue. Some of the story is also told through emails you can find in secret areas, giving you incentive to explore the levels.
Each level looks very nice, and every new area has its own unique feel to it. However, some levels are very open-ended; Objectives are always in the same places, but you’re going to have to do a lot of searching before you find them. This is made worse by the useless compass that you’re given. Sometimes this compass points you towards objectives, and other times it doesn’t — It’s entirely random. I don’t know how long I spent searching for the key in the second WW2 level, but it was an infuriatingly long time. While I love wide open levels, it becomes incredibly confusing to navigate them and figure out what to do when you’re given no direction. Throw in the fact that there are few landmarks to help you get around the bigger levels, and you’ve got a recipe for confusion.
You’re given a variety of weapons to use in Bedlam, all of which are unique in their own way. You can acquire crossbows that pin enemies to walls, a minigun, a laser pistol that causes enemies to explode, and even a sword that shoots fireballs. The enemies themselves are not terribly interesting, however. Certain enemies will carry different weapons, yes, but it would have been nice if these enemies used different models or at least different textures to keep things fresh. The only diverse enemy types are the zombies, and they only appear twice in the entire game.
While Bedlam had me entertained and smiling ear to ear for its first half, it quickly started disappointing me after a while. The story had silly moments where Heather would be constantly trying to catch up with her allies only to have just missed them at the last second. I was hoping to meet up with the side characters and learn more about them, but sadly they only served as a vehicle for Heather to get from point A to point B.
Another huge disappointment was the massive difficulty spike towards the end of the game. The Halo-themed level was one of the most obnoxious levels in the game. Certain enemies would snipe me with precise accuracy, taking off 50% of my health, only to cloak and run away before I even had a chance to fire back. Then halfway through the level you randomly have to sit in a little fort and defend yourself from a horde of enemies (many of which are said stupid sniper enemies) with no health or ammo pickups to help you.
There’s absolutely no reason given for having to defend yourself in this area other than “Just do it.” What angered me more was that it wasn’t even part of my objective to go here, I simply wandered in while exploring, and suddenly I was forced to sit around for 20 minutes and reload my game over and over because I had 10 health and 20 snipers insta-killing me. I’m still baffled by this part of the game; There’s absolutely no warning given, no preparation, nothing. The final level in the game is also incredibly frustrating. It drags on for much too long, and it’s definitely the least interesting level in the entire game.
That is, it drags on until you reach the final boss, which is a total slap in the face. This boss took me all of two minutes to defeat. It doesn’t attack you, it doesn’t move, it doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t even look intimidating. The only hazards are zombies — which are easy to outrun — and pitfalls. And what is your reward for beating such a terrible boss? A terrible ending, of course. I won’t spoil anything, but this game manages to build up this interesting story with some twists that I honestly didn’t see coming, and the ending just kills it all. Words can’t describe how annoyed I was. In fact, I was literally speechless. I sat in my chair, staring blankly into space as the credits rolled. I felt like I had wasted my time.
To put it simply: Bedlam is an okay game. It would have been much better had it not gotten so difficult, had the level design been a bit better, and had the ending not been awful. The first half of the game was fantastic. It was nostalgic, it was interesting, and it was simply fun. The only thing that really kept me playing was the story and the humorous dialogue. If you want a dirt simple shooter that pays homage to various classic titles, I’d recommend picking Bedlam up. However, considering it only took me about 4 hours to beat on the normal difficulty, the $20 asking price is steep even if you’re willing to look passed the aforementioned issues. I’d suggest waiting for a sale and picking it up for $10 off at least. Honestly, I just feel like Bedlam works better as a book than a video game, and that’s pretty sad when you think about it.
A PC review code for Bedlam was provided by RedBedlam for the purpose of this review